HOUSING developers will soon have to cough up more money for new nursery and early years places in Somerset.

Somerset County Council is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient new nursery and school places to meet demand from new housing developments – whether through extending existing schools or building new ones.

Housing developers are expected to make a contribution towards the cost of these new places as part of legal agreements signed whenever new homes are approved.

But the amount developers will be expected to pay is set to rise as more children than expected moved into new developments in Somerset over a five-year period.

Under the current policy, developers are expected to fund five new early years places for every 100 new homes which are approved and built – with the average cost of each place being just over £17,000.

But this will now rise to nine places per 100 homes after more children than expected moved into new developments in Somerset between January 2012 and December 2017.

In a report published on its website on Thursday (August 29), the council said the rise in demand was also driven by the national extension of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds in working families.

All children of this age – along with the most disadvantaged two-year-olds – are eligible for 570 hours of funded childcare a year, known as the ‘universal entitlement’.

But the Childcare Act 2016 extended this to include a further 570 hours a year for three- and four-year-olds in working families – known as the ‘extended entitlement’.

A council spokesperson said: “We have a duty to secure funded childcare places for qualifying children.

“A proportion of the families moving into new housing developments will have early years-aged children, and many of them will be eligible for funded childcare.

“The extended entitlement increased the number of funded places required for eligible children.

“There are more early years-aged children from new housing developments than was previously thought.”

Following guidance from the Department for Education (DfE), the council can also now demand developers make contributions towards new places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The council said it would seek contributions for one specialist primary school place for every 313 new dwellings, and one specialist secondary school place per 715 dwellings.

A spokesperson said: “The DfE recommends that developer contributions for special or alternative school places are set at four times the cost of mainstream places.

“To make no change presents a risk that the contributions from developers are too low, and therefore places a financial burden on the council to make up the shortfall.”